Matt Pickles Climbs True North - 8c

Sheffield based climber Matt Pickles has climbed his first 8c route with an ascent of True North at Kilnsey, Yorkshire.

Matt took six days spread over two weeks to tick the route, battling wet conditions on the lower half.

He commented:

"It was pretty frustrating having the bottom wet most of the time, so it was a case of working the top and trying some links until it dried out a bit. When it was dry enough it went down on my second proper redpoint."

The route is a long and steep limestone endurance route and is one of the more popular 8cs in the UK.

Although ascents of 8c are not internationally significant in these days of young super-mutants (Adam Ondra has ruined it for everyone else!), they are quite rare in the UK.

Matt agrees:

"I know some people are starting to question whether 8c is newsworthy any more, and on a global scale it's probably not, and also for the people who are regularly climbing at this level it's not a massive deal, but within the UK it still doesn't happen that often and those breaking the grade probably deserve a mention, as it takes a lot of time and effort to get there. Just because more people are climbing at this level doesn't make the routes any easier!"